


Too Tired

by haldoor



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-24 00:26:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/932961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haldoor/pseuds/haldoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Warnings/Spoilers:</b> None for the show, unless you don't know about Danny's pre-existing knee injury.  There's a mild sex scene; nothing you haven't seen before in a fic of this rating<br/><b>Disclaimer:</b> Still don't own them; still not profiting from my exploits in the fandom<br/><b>Beta:</b> My dearest and most wonderful <span class="ljuser i-ljuser"></span><a href="http://siluria.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://siluria.livejournal.com/"></a><b>siluria</b><br/><b>Summary:</b> Danny's been off work for a week through injury, and bored really doesn't cover how he's feeling<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Tired

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaige68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/gifts).



> I wrote this one from a prompt supplied by my darlink Slash Twin, [](http://kaige68.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://kaige68.livejournal.com/)**kaige68** : _"No, I'm too tired."_ although she might just have been telling me she was too tired to supply a prompt… In any case, I got a bit carried away and the imagined 500 word fic I thought I was writing somehow turned into over 6000. Oops.

Danny was keyed up.

Injured on Monday, he'd been told by the doctor to elevate his knee as much as possible and to keep off his leg for a week.

By Friday he was going stir-crazy. Despite having Grace stay over on Wednesday night – Rachel had delivered her after school and then picked her up again in time for class on Thursday morning – and despite his daily phone calls, e-mails and texts with all three of the Five-0 team, he was seriously bored by Friday afternoon.

Only Chin had managed a visit, and that had been fleeting at best because they were trying to work two cases at once with a man down. Danny had read all the books he had been stockpiling for the last several months when there was no time to read. Not to mention he'd watched about all the lame pay-per-view movies (including a few porn ones) he thought he could manage for one week. He'd wanted to take advantage of the porn, but not being able to do more than limp to the bathroom in some pain put a downer on that. The other choice was in full view of passers-by – of which there were far too many in Danny's opinion – to the one window near where the TV was positioned for best viewing in his comfy chair.

Danny sighed for what felt like the fortieth time in as many minutes and picked up his cell phone. He'd already sent Steve a few texts to let him know he'd be more than happy for some company tonight since it wasn't a Grace weekend. He was sure Rachel would have been happy to swap had it not been for cheerleading practice and the birthday party his daughter had over the two days that he wouldn't be able to drive her to and would require more ferrying from Rachel.

He'd thought about calling Steve about five times already, but had managed to keep it down to only a couple of calls where he'd had to leave messages. The one text he'd had in reply had informed him that both cases had wrapped cleanly enough for the team to be seriously considering a proper weekend off, but hadn't promised anything like a visit.

"Damn you, Steven; can't you just call me?" he berated the phone, willing it to ring. "Right about now, even _your_ company would be relaxing."

He almost dropped it when the darn thing actually rang, and Danny couldn't help his eager grin as he answered. "You must have read my mind," he told Steve.

"Babe… the three voice-mails and six texts told me I'd be in deep trouble if I didn't at least call you before I fell into bed."

"Bed? You're going to sleep? Seriously?"

There was the almost-breathy sound of Steve collecting his thoughts before he answered – either that or he was yawning; Danny wasn't sure which.

"Seriously, Danny. I've been on my feet for fourteen hours straight and if I didn't think you'd call again and wake me from deep sleep in a couple of hours, I'd already be naked between the sheets."

Danny had to take a breath at the image that arose unbidden at those words. "I thought you might swing by for a beer; fill me on what I missed this week. You can pass out on my couch if it gets too much."

His voice sounded a little shy of desperate, and the offer of passing out on his couch just confirmed the impression, but he really needed to do _something_ , even if it was as sad as watching the big lunk fall asleep because he was too bushed to stay alert for a simple conversation. Now that image had Danny smiling again; it actually wasn't that awful an idea.

"No, I'm too tired, Danny. I'll crash the truck if I try to get behind the wheel right now."

Danny switched the phone to his other ear. "You're seriously telling me that you'd rather go to sleep without eating dinner and downing at least one cold one while you explain what crazy ideas you tried to pull off without me there to supervise you this week?"

"Yup, that's exactly what I'm saying." Steve even sounded exhausted; not something Danny could remember hearing so vividly before.

Licking his lips, Danny tried to come up with a viable alternative to him pulling his own hair out and making doilies with it in his cabin-fevered loneliness. "I've got it; I'll catch a cab to yours. You order pizza and check you've got beer. Come to think of it, I still have a couple of cans here; that'll probably be enough. We can put on the game you Tivo'd last weekend – I know you haven't had time to watch it yet, and I haven't seen it because _you_ were recording it and we were supposed to watch it together on Tuesday night if all hell hadn't broken loose by then – which, as you know, it did. If you fall asleep while it's on, I will at least have some form of entertainment that doesn't involve The Rock making an even bigger idiot of himself than he did in Fast and Furious Five, or a Nicholas Sparks book in movie form, and you will have company should you wake up in the night and feel the pressing need to relive this week's cases with me. Sound like a plan?"

There was a silence at the other end of the phone that had Danny frowning and blinking. The line was still open, so Danny was sure Steve hadn't hung up. "Steve?"

A low snuffling sleep-sound was the only reply.

Danny held the phone away from his ear and spoke at it rather than into it. "Typical. The one week I'm out of action, you go and exhaust yourself completely and leave me stranded and bored beyond belief. I won't be nodding off any time soon after sleeping in every day since Monday, and I am going to start climbing the walls if I have to sit through one more no-brainer police procedural that has more plot-holes than my mother's favourite spaghetti sieve!"

Steve was full-on snoring by now.

Danny cut off the call and threw the phone at the couch. "Selfish bastard."

Ten seconds later he was carefully maneuvering his ass up off the chair and reaching for the phone. "If you're snoring like that, babe, you are not comfortably tucked up in your bed – at least, I would imagine your SEAL buddies would have given you a different dog-related name had you been a regular snorer – and I will not be able to relax if you fall off the couch and land on your face on the carpet because of it."

Dialing his favourite pizza place, Danny quickly put in an order to be delivered to Steve's – on his tab too, since Danny had taken the liberty of taking note of Steve's last instructions to the same pizza place, and he figured Steve _owed_ him this much for being willing to check in on him, even if Steve hadn't managed the same for him any time lately.

His second call was to the cab company he sometimes used when he was drinking and wouldn't be driving.

~//~

Half an hour later, Danny was limping down Steve's front path, cane in hand. No answer to his knock confirmed that Steve was still out cold. The lack of resistance when Danny turned the door knob informed him that he was right to be checking, since if Steve was so dog-tired he hadn't even locked the door, _anyone_ could walk in while he slept with far less reputable intentions than Danny.

"Babe?" Danny called softly as he went in, carefully shutting the door and looking around.

No sign of Steve in the living area. Danny knew he had to be careful of the knee still, but it had been a week and he figured it was more important that he make sure Steve was okay than to stay completely off it.

The doorbell rang while Danny was checking the downstairs rooms – no evidence of Steve in any of them that Danny could see – and he slowly made his way back to answer it. The golden-cheesy smell of good pizza reached Danny's nose even before he'd got the door properly open, but the sounds and smell didn't produce Steve, even when the pizza guy proved to be both partly deaf and a loud talker.

By the time Danny shut the door, he was seriously starting to worry about Steve. He left the pizza on the coffee table and cautiously started up the stairs. Checking the other rooms perfunctorily on his way past, Danny thought he could hear snoring emanating from Steve's bedroom. He pushed the door to the room open and heaved a sigh of relief as he caught sight of his partner in the dim light, propped against a pillow on the bed.

"You goof," he admonished quietly, stepping further into the room and reaching to turn on the lamp next to him. "Jesus Christ!"

Steve was not between the sheets, but he _was_ naked, which Danny certainly hadn't expected. Clearly when he'd been talking to Danny earlier, he had literally been about to get into bed as free of clothing as he'd suggested. He was leaned awkwardly back against a couple of pillows, his phone lying face-down on the bed next to his relaxed hand, gentle snores punctuated by a wheezy snort every so often.

Danny swallowed hard, unable to help taking in every well-defined curve of Steve's displayed body. If anyone was a perfect specimen – if you discounted the snoring – it was Steve. Danny's knee gave a twinge that made him wince at the pain, and he carefully lowered himself to sit on the bed at Steve's ankles, although in all reality the likelihood he was going to come around now seemed awfully slim since Danny's outburst hadn't already woken him.

"You can't be comfortable like that," Danny told him as he took in the angle Steve's head was at. He let his eyes traverse the gorgeous form again, a different sort of twinge running through him as his gaze reached Steve's crotch. It wasn't like Steve didn't take off his shirt at the drop of a hat, and Danny had seen him plenty of times in his swim trunks, but never completely naked like this. And Steve was not a small man, not that Danny had consciously thought about things quite like _that_ before.

He dragged his eyes away from the temptation to touch that looking at that particular part of Steve's anatomy brought to the surface in him, knowing he was not about to take advantage of Steve while he was virtually unconscious like this.

"Let's get you lying down at least," Danny muttered, shifting up the bed far enough to pick up Steve's phone, which had obviously disconnected from the call to Danny some time ago. Placing it on the night stand, he put a hand on Steve's shoulder, hoping to rouse him just enough to get him to shift.

"Mm, Dan..no, wha..?" Steve half-mumbled, half slurred, as Danny managed to persuade him to slide down the bed a little, and then he was rolling over onto his side, facing away from Danny, hiding his family jewels but – as Danny moved back to where he'd originally been – now exposing his nothing less than impressive ass for Danny to admire instead.

The snoring had ceased, although his breathing was still audible enough for Danny to know Steve was definitely asleep, no matter how almost lucid he had tried to be as Danny had helped him to move. He'd either been aware enough to realize it was Danny there, or else he'd spent enough time in his company to be dreaming about him – what that said, Danny wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Okay, buddy, you sleep. I'll be here when you wake up." Danny's voice was quiet and perhaps just a little hoarse, and he knew he had to leave the room or he might be having a much more serious conversation with himself – after he did some adjusting the bathroom – before he could speak to Steve without remembering how this situation had made him feel, _and_ without being more than a little embarrassed about it. That was the last thing he needed to feel in Steve's presence; the guy would probably sense something behind any discomfit, and it wouldn't take a lot of figuring out.

Downstairs again some minutes later, Danny tried to shut off his whirring brain by turning on the Tivo'd game from last week and reaching for the rapidly cooling pizza he'd left behind.

There was no way he was going to let himself think about Steve lying alone and naked upstairs any longer than he already had.

~//~

"Danny?"

The fond voice from somewhere behind him made him smile and turn towards it. "Babe?"

"Wake up, Danny," Steve said, a little louder this time.

Danny blinked awake, aware that he'd been having _very_ pleasant dreams, and that the voice was not actually part of that, but the reality of Steve bending over him, a concerned look in his eyes.

"Uh… I guess I fell asleep," Danny admitted, looking around and quickly pulling a cushion into his lap before Steve noticed anything was amiss. "What time is it?"

The TV was mumbling behind Steve, the game well and truly over and some mindless game-show flashing brilliant colors across the room. Steve sat down in the chair beside him, running a hand across his eyes, and then reached for the TV remote, clicking the set off before he gazed back at Danny. He was dressed in worn sweatpants and an old T-shirt, to Danny's relief. His difficulty was thankfully subsiding, and he pawed the cushion a little as he came to full wakefulness.

"A little after four. How long have you been here?"

"Came over shortly after you fell asleep while we were talking on the phone."

Steve took in the remains of the beer and pizza on the coffee table in the low light. "You shouldn't have come. Your knee…"

"Is fine," Danny finished for him. "I was concerned that if you were asleep so easily, maybe you needed… uh… to be checked up on. As it turned out, I was right – you hadn't even locked the front door. Plus, I needed… company, and you had the game Tivo'd."

Steve smiled at him softly and shook his head.

"What? I was going stir-crazy! You've been busy all week and I've done everything I could think of to do at my place."

"So you came over here to tuck me in and lock the door? You've been sitting here so long, you fell asleep."

Danny remembered the tucking in a little too vividly and had to look away from Steve's odd expression. He wasn't sure what he could see below those far-too-pretty eyelashes in the light of the one lamp. "Yeah; figured I may as well watch the whole game, and then there was a movie that looked interesting…"

"You did put my phone on the nightstand, didn't you? I don't remember hanging up so…"

Danny couldn't help swinging his eyes back to Steve at the softly-spoken sentence with the hanging end that clearly had a question in it. His eyes were downcast though and Danny wasn't sure if he'd imagined the wistfulness in the words. "Yep. You were out of it when I got up the stairs though, so I just… you kinda mumbled something as I encouraged you to find a more comfortable position that didn't provoke such foul snoring, and then I left you to it."

"Okay, good." Steve stayed where he was, eyes still on the floor.

Danny continued to watch him warily for a few more seconds, wondering what the atmosphere he was sensing was about. "Uh… you're still tired, I guess?"

Steve nodded, drawing in a long, slow breath.

"I should go home." Danny couldn't get a handle on the situation at all. It was like he was still dreaming; the air had that kind of quality to it. And Steve still wasn't speaking. Had he fallen asleep again, sitting upright this time? "Babe?"

But Steve looked up slowly and managed a weary smile. "Stay if you want. I'll get you pillows and a blanket, or…"

Danny's heart had started racing; he wasn't sure why, but something told him that something important was about to happen; maybe something he hadn't expected with Steve. "You don't have to… I mean… I could call a cab. You should sleep more, you know?" It was fear talking, but Danny couldn't seem to help himself. What if Steve actually invited him to share the bed?

"Sure." Steve nodded again, his eyes shifting uneasily across the room. "Sure, you do that."

There was definitely disappointment in his voice, like he'd somehow already made the offer wordlessly and Danny had rejected it; rejected _him_.

"Do you want me to stay?" Danny asked, sure the confusion in his own tone must be evident. "I mean… on the couch… right?"

And now Steve was looking at him again, more fixedly than before, like he'd figured out exactly how Danny had been feeling when he'd found Steve naked.

Danny felt like a deer in the headlights; unable to move or say anything for a moment. There was so much unspoken communication filtering across the room in Steve's intense expression that it made Danny swallow. He licked dry lips and tried to form words of some kind. Not even sure what they were, he wondered if this exact situation was what they'd both been heading towards for months – maybe even as long as they'd known each other – without either being aware of the other's interest.

"Yes," Steve said, and Danny frowned.

"Yes, what?"

"You asked me if I was sure about this. I am. Are you? I don't want…" Steve stopped, rubbed a hand across his face and closed his eyes. "Maybe now's not the time."

"We are talking about the same thing, aren't we?" Danny tried, desperate to be certain of what he was getting into before he made too big a mistake. He'd been suppressing all this for so long; the last thing he wanted was to misunderstand so close to getting what he'd dreamed about.

"I think so," Steve whispered, then added almost too quietly to hear, "Come upstairs with me?"

The words tickled across Danny's senses, a spiral of desire floating through his body and out across the room – Danny could almost see the whisper of it wrapping around Steve – and he nodded, never taking his eyes off Steve.

Steve stood up, stepping towards him, and held out a hand. Danny looked up at him silhouetted against the radiance of the lamp behind him, and despite the darkness, he was sure Steve was smiling.

"Not too tired now, then?" he got out, reaching for the offered hand. It was warm, and a sensation of strength flitted down Danny's arm even before Steve carefully pulled and allowed Danny's own weight to draw him up. They were far from an even height, but there was something leveling about the way Steve gripped his hand and didn't expect any weakness from Danny.

Steve nodded this time, and let go, leading the way upstairs, letting Danny make his own way behind him without comment.

~//~

In the bedroom, Steve pulled his t-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor, his back to Danny as he moved quietly towards the bed.

Danny hesitated in the doorway, watching him, rewinding their exchange downstairs inside his head, making certain he hadn't somehow misconstrued the implications of all they'd said.

But Steve was turning, pushing his sweatpants off and sitting down on the edge of the bed, his eyes glittering in the darkness as he gazed back at Danny. "What are you waiting for?"

His voice was low and inviting, causing another ripple of need to run right through Danny. He grinned nervously, though Steve probably couldn't see it.

"Nothing."

Danny quickly pulled off his own t-shirt and unbuckled his belt, unsnapping the metal button of his jeans and sliding them awkwardly down his legs, along with his underwear. He was already barefoot, and he took a breath as he stepped out of his pants, wincing a little as he put pressure on his knee.

"Come here," Steve ordered softly and Danny felt unable to disobey, shifting to stand in front of him despite the twinge in his leg. Steve looked up at his face, shadows flitting across his skin as he lifted his hands to Danny's hips.

Danny shivered at the touch – though Steve's hands were far from cold – and his cock was already rigid. While he couldn't see much of Steve's crotch in the lack of light, something told him Steve was in a similar state.

"Here," Steve repeated, tugging him until Danny reluctantly sat sideways on Steve's lap – pain in his knee made him reluctant to straddle it as Steve obviously wanted – but somehow he understood this without words, and then he was running his hands over Danny's back and shoulder, drawing him nearer until their lips met.

Now there was no mistaking Steve's excitement. He was almost thrumming with need, and Danny felt the vibration right through him, desire spiraling higher as they tasted each other. His own hands found Steve's short hair, rubbing through to appreciate the softness which Danny hadn't expected to find. The kissing grew deeper, more needy, and Danny wanted to climb _inside_ Steve; fuck breathing!

Steve was making tiny sounds of pleasure, his hands drawing Danny down over him as he slowly lowered himself to lying flat on his back, Danny half-lying on top of him.

Danny had to pull away enough to breathe, but he didn't move far, seeking Steve's mouth again despite his breathlessness, and turning to rut against him, his need rising so fast he thought he might lose it any second.

"Danny, Danno, slow… slow down…" Steve sounded winded as he tore his mouth away for a second.

"No, no slowing down," Danny moaned against the skin of Steve's neck. "If I think about this too much it won't happen."

"Then at least… God, Danny!" Steve groaned at the touch of Danny's teeth on his neck, and his fingers tightened on Danny's back. "Let me…"

He couldn't seem to get any more words out, but he maneuvered Danny sideways off him, rolling as he did so, until they were lying face to face, one hand drawing Danny nearer by the thigh until their cocks were pulsing hotly together, then he raised the hand to his lips and licked wetly at his palm, his eyes glinting in the moonlight that reflected off the mirror on the far wall.

Danny took a breath to ask something, his own hand on Steve's hip, holding them close, but then Steve was wrapping that big, damp hand around both of their cocks, and Danny couldn't do anything except grunt at the intense pleasure it produced. He fucked into the tight fist, his cock slipping and rubbing against Steve's, and bent himself forward until his lips met Steve's chest.

"Danny, Danny," Steve kept repeating into his hair, the arm under Danny curling around his back and pulling him closer as the words lost all coherence and turned into guttural groan. Steve gave in to his orgasm, bucking against and into Danny.

There was nothing Danny could do but follow him over the edge, his vision completely blanking out as he bit at Steve's nipple to stifle his own cry.

Shuddering slowly to a stop in a sticky heap of sweat and come, Danny half over Steve again, he took in several gulps of air, closing his eyes and listening to the steady thud of Steve's heart. It was comforting in a way he'd always suspected it would be, but never imagined he'd ever get to experience. Danny found himself grinning as Steve's shaky hands encircled him, one cautiously threading through his hair.

Danny enjoyed the stroking, which in itself was unusual; he was fussy about his hair and had never let Steve touch it before. The thought must have transferred itself to Steve because his hand suddenly stopped moving and he withdrew his fingers.

"Sorry."

Danny lifted his head to squint down at Steve, who was looking something less than comfortable in what little light was available for Danny to judge. "I will probably revert to normal transmission tomorrow and tell you not to touch my hair, but I actually…" Danny trailed off as something told him the discomfit was about more than just touching Danny's hair. "You okay?"

"We probably shouldn't have done that." Steve made to draw away, but Danny stopped him with a hand to his chest.

He shook his head. "What's going on in there, babe? Let me guess, huh? This is all your fault and I couldn't possibly have wanted it." Steve made a negative kind of noise, but before he could say anything, Danny went on, pulling away himself this time. "What? You think I followed you up the stairs with my knee in this state because I felt _sorry_ for you? You didn't force me into anything, Steve, so quit the guilt trip, huh?" He looked down at the mess drying on Steve's skin. "We should clean up, then maybe get some sleep, unless you want to hash this out now?"

Steve's brows looked tight as he sat up, and there was definitely something like guilt in his eyes. "You want to use the shower first?"

"Jesus H. Christ, Steven, we just came all over each other; I'm pretty sure no one's going to freak out if we get in the shower together. Come on, you doofus." He creaked to his feet, trying to keep the wincing to a minimum as he held out a hand for Steve this time.

Steve managed a smile as he took the offered hand, though it was still not as brilliant as Danny knew he was capable of.

"Let me start off by saying I would never take advantage of you and I'm pretty damned sure you wouldn't do it to me either," Danny told him as they moved through into the bathroom.

Steve flicked the light on as Danny headed for the shower and cranked on the water. He turned back to get a proper look at Steve's expression, wondering when it was he became the one who didn't second-guess his own motives.

"You look like you just lost a dollar and found a quarter, buddy." After a moment of Steve gazing at him like a lost soul and not saying anything, he added, "You going to say anything or am I going to have to work out the problem in code?" Danny held up both hands expectantly, but there was still no answer. "Well, _I'm_ having a shower anyway, even if all you want to do is stand here with semen drying in your chest hairs." He got into the cubicle, rubbing hot water into his knee and hissing at the pleasure of it. Steve could join him if he wanted; but Danny wasn't about to waste the hot water.

"It's not that I didn't want it," Steve said softly as he slid into the stream of water behind Danny and picked up the soap, beginning to rub it into Danny's shoulders after a moment. "And I'm pretty sure you did too; I just… what happens now?"

"We get clean and then we go make use of that big bed of yours."

Steve's hands stopped. "What?"

"To _sleep_ , you goof. Just sleep. You're obviously still exhausted, and with luck we won't have to race into HQ on a Saturday, unless there's a new case you failed to advise me of?"

At Danny's reply, Steve resumed the soapy massage. "No, nothing new."

"Then we sleep. Properly. Together. Think you can manage that?" Danny turned around and studied the slightly relieved look in Steve's eyes as he continued soaping Danny.

Steve nodded, still seeming a little lost, and said nothing further.

"This," Danny gestured between them, "We talk about over breakfast. Which, I may add, you're making if you have pancake mix on the premises. Otherwise we're going out and you're buying."

There was a slightly hysterical laugh at that, but still no real indication of what was going through Steve's head.

Danny swiped the soap out of his hand and began returning the favor. "What are you thinking now, babe?"

Steve met his eyes again, humor helping him out. "Aside from how sticky come is in all your body hair? I was… I wondered how it is you're so calm about this. How did you learn to be so relaxed about having sex with another man?"

Something occurred to Danny then and he frowned. "This isn't… you're not… am I your first?"

"No, no…of course not," Steve said, the words tumbling out in a rush as he looked away.

"You don't have to lie, babe," Danny offered softly. "This isn't a competition. And if it makes you feel better, it's been a long time since I did anything like this."

Steve offered a small, guilty-looking smile, then took the soap away from Danny and placed it back in the holder before crowding close enough to rinse off quickly and leave the shower. Danny frowned after him, washing away the leftover soap from his own body and following wordlessly behind.

Thinking that maybe it was better to let Steve come to terms with the situation quietly in his own head for a while, Danny was uncharacteristically silent while they dried off and returned to the bedroom.

"Uh…" Steve had turned on the lamp as they entered and he was staring at the mess they'd made of the bedding like it was going to announce what they'd done to the whole of Oahu.

"I'll help change the sheets," Danny offered, tucking the towel he'd wrapped around his waist more tightly.

"Yeah." Steve nodded as Danny started removing the stained linen, and went to find replacement sheets.

It was strangely domestic to make up a bed with Steve; it felt oddly right to Danny and they worked as well together doing this as they did on a case – less of the arguments perhaps, but then Steve appeared to still be contemplating the enormity of what they'd done and how that was going to affect everything between them from here on in.

Danny dropped the towel when the bed was ready and climbed in, having already figured which side was Steve's and opting not to argue about anything so mundane at this point. The last thing he wanted was to freak Steve out any more than he already appeared to be.

Steve removed his own towel, carefully hanging it over the back of a chair, and climbed in, giving Danny a nervous look as he lay back against the pillows beside him.

"We can just sleep now, babe." Danny held up a hand, offering a reassuring smile. "I do solemnly swear not to molest you in your sleep."

Steve even managed a quiet laugh at that. "Okay."

"You know, it's funny. By all rights, I should be the one freaking out about this. I haven't gotten busy with another guy since college. Been married and divorced; had several girlfriends before and after that, and here I am sleeping with my partner. My very male _working_ partner." He looked at Steve. "You, on the other hand, have only admitted to a 'thing' with one woman and… do you realize I have no idea what your sex life was like before that?"

There was another furtive look away and then Steve took a breath before facing Danny once more. "I know people talk about sailors, but… in all honestly, with more women at sea these days, it's not like that as much as you might think. Sure, I was aware of a couple of gay relationships, but… I never… I…" Steve paused, turning his eyes towards the ceiling as he licked his lips, evidently gathering his thoughts.

There was a pinkness to his cheeks under the tan that Danny found endearing. He didn't often see Steve this vulnerable and it awoke something in him that he hadn't felt since he and Rachel were expecting Grace. He rolled onto his side, propping his head up with an elbow, convinced he was about to get the 'I haven't ever done this and I'm not sure what I'm doing now' speech from him. Keeping quiet now was probably the best course of action, he decided, or Steve would clam up.

"In high school," Steve started, his voice low and surprisingly even as he managed to meet Danny's eyes again, "I had this friend. He and I did _everything_ together." Danny raised his eyebrows at the implication in the emphasized word, but didn't interrupt. "When my dad sent me to the mainland, I thought… I thought I was going to die, in all honesty. I couldn't tell Dad about… about my friend, and I didn't know how to get him to change his mind. We wrote for a while, but… it got too hard. Neither one of us wanted to say anything in the letters in case someone found them. And then I decided to join up… I'd kinda figured my way around a couple of women by then and… well, I just figured it was easier. I didn't think about all that stuff much after that."

"So…" Danny stretched the word out, giving Steve time to add more if he wanted.

"So, I didn't even think… I wanted it any more. There were a couple of times – a long time ago – when I went with a guy… it was casual though; nothing like sleeping with a friend: someone I care about."

Danny blinked at the emotion in Steve's eyes and nodded, unable to say anything at the honesty evident in the admission.

"It didn't matter if we never saw each other again," Steve went on when Danny didn't fill in the silence. "It's not like that with you. We have to work together, for a start. I'm not even sure…" He stopped, seeming too overcome to continue, though he was clearly holding back from appearing overly emotional.

A light went on in Danny's head. He should have known that if Steve was going to fall, he'd fall hard, and his insecurity made sense after everything he'd been through. "I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen, Steve."

"You're not?" Steve's eyes dropped away and Danny admired the girlish eyelashes, amazed that something so pretty didn't make Steve any less than masculine in his beauty.

"I wanted it as much as you did – maybe more." He shrugged and reached his free hand out to stroke Steve's nearest arm. "I care about you too; you gotta know that." It was still slightly surprising to Danny that he hadn't freaked about this whole thing himself. He laughed softly. "I thought we'd have this conversation in a couple more hours when the sun was up, but you're obviously too keyed up about it to sleep until you get some answers, so I… I should tell you that I'm looking forward to discovering what other things we can do together that don't involve work, the sand, pineapples… or clothes."

Steve had looked back up at him while he was speaking, his smile starting to look more like the Steve that Danny knew and loved. Yes, he decided, _loved_.

"We could… you know…" Steve began, seeking Danny's wandering hand with his own and shifting so he could kiss it.

It felt delicious, but Danny's eyelids were starting to droop. It looked a lot like things could only get better now the anxiety had been answered, and they had all the time in the world to explore things further, whatever other obstacles arose for them to overcome.

"I'm pretty tired," Danny threw back the sentiment that Steve had tossed him last night, a grin curving his lip to show he wasn't completely against the idea.

"You sure about that?" Steve asked, rolling over to meet him in the middle of the bed, his lips finding Danny's with very little effort.

"Yup, absolutely exhausted. Someone I know made sure I'd come over here late to _babysit_ and it was late by the time I fell asleep, and then…" Danny's words turned into a yip as Steve bit his neck.

It was certain that Danny was _going_ to be too tired in a little while for anything other than lying in Steve's bed for all of Saturday, but a few hours of lazing about doing nothing much – with Steve by his side this time around – certainly seemed a lot more appealing now than it had done on Monday.

~//~


End file.
